Air Pollution Filters Help Scientists Produce First UK Wildlife Survey Using eDNA

upstart writes:

Air pollution filters help scientists produce first UK wildlife survey using eDNA:

Social media post led to discovery that samplers measuring toxic particles in air can also detect fragments of DNA

As the UK's Big Butterfly Count reaches more than 100,000 submissions, an international group of scientists have produced the first national survey of biodiversity using an entirely different approach. Instead of looking for species by eye, they took advantage of the samplers around the UK that constantly measure toxic metal particles in the air, and used them to measure tiny fragments of DNA [YouTube video 4:09 --JE].

Dr Joanne Littlefair from University College London, part of the research team, said: "Organisms lose bits of themselves all the time - dead skin cells, fragments of hair or feathers, saliva, even faeces and urine. Some of this will blow up into the air and become airborne 'environmental' DNA or eDNA."

Researchers were able to detect more than 1,100 plants and animals which included familiar UK species - trees, commercial crops, earthworms, newts, robins and badgers - as well as species of conservation concern, including skylarks and hedgehogs. The team found 65 species of butterfly and moth, including the gatekeeper (no 3 in the Big Butterfly Count) as well as the purple hairstreak, a butterfly that lives mainly in oak trees and is often overlooked. They also found established invasive species such as grey squirrels and muntjacs as well species that have only just arrived in the UK, and fungi that are considered crop pests as well as the pathogen that causes ash dieback.

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